Legislative Notes
Legislature delivers on workforce housing promise
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The Montana Legislature enacted a bipartisan solution in the form of House Bill 819 to make historic investments in workforce housing. The State of Montana is in a workforce housing crisis and the negative effects of this crisis have hit every county in the State.
The Montana Community Reinvestment Plan seeks to stem the trend of hyper-inflation on workforce housing through a public-private partnership. This shared equity program takes those making between 60 and 140 percent of the median household income, which today equates to nearly $60,000 a year average, and allows them to leverage their maximum mortgage allowance with a deed restricted mortgage in order to make housing affordable.
This shared equity/deed restricted mortgage is bought down by a Community Reinvestment Organization’s (CRO) revolving fund that restricts the sale price of a home. When an individual gets into a position where they can afford to purchase the deed restricted mortgage, then the revenue (beyond the deed restriction) returns to the CRO revolving fund, and a new applicant takes advantage of the pool.
This pool will initially be funded by a $50 million one-time-only injection by the State, which must be matched by an additional $50 million at the local level. The program will be allowed to expand by partnering with individual employers to make Montana a more attractive place to recruit and retain employees. While many programs target individual communities in the State, the Montana Community Reinvestment Plan allows every county to participate by opting into the program. The fund will be allocated and distributed to each CRO based upon the county’s Gross Domestic Product contribution to the State.
Additional investments by the Legislature in HB 819 include:
$107 million for the Montana Housing Infrastructure Revolving Loan Fund to assist with water, wastewater, stormwater, streets, roads, curbs and gutters, and sidewalks;
$65 million available for the Multifamily Coal Trust Homes Program which provides loans for multifamily housing;
$12 million for Housing for Targeted Communities, reserved for counties with less than 15,000 inhabitants located within a 30-mile radius of certain state-owned facilities; and
Availability to use School Trust Lands for housing solutions.
These investments will leverage an additional $400-600 million in economic activity associated with workforce housing. We view HB 819 as a good start. We look forward to working with legislative leadership, our legislative peers, the Gianforte Administration, and stakeholders (all of whom deserve credit for HB 819’s enactment) to implement the various aspects of the legislation.
